Runestones are without a doubt the greatest contribution of the Age of Enlightenment, as they allow magic to be used by people who possess the ability to channel ?ther, but lack the talent or patience to weave spells. So great was their impact on society that Thonill's famous treatise on rune crafting was declared to signal the end of the Age of Enlightenment and the beginning of the Vanguard Age.

  Excerpt from 'Introduction to the Workings of Magic'

  “Will you be gone long?” Cassie asked, her face a contorted grimace, betraying the pain she had experienced only moments earlier.

  Felt looked down upon the bed Cassie was lying on. The sheets were a tangled mess; the eight-year-old girl thrashed around every time she suffered an attack. Seeing her half-sister like this broke Felt's heart, but she managed a smile anyway. “It's not too far away from here, so I should be back soon.”

  “Will Madilla come again, after?”

  Felt softly touched the child's forehead. “You will see her soon and then your pain will go away again.” Cassie smiled weakly and Felt turned away as she could no longer bear to see it. It's my fault she's like this. Why did her treatments have to increase in price like that?

  Madilla was the tishe, a wandering healer, who had been treating Cassie for the past moon. After a long string of other healers, herbalists and quacks, Madilla had been the first to actually succeed in eliminating the symptoms of Cassie's ?ther-born affliction. The first to relieve her of the suffering that had only increased as she grew older.

  I won't let you go back to being that ball of misery, Felt thought.

  She left Cassie in their shared room and crept down the stairs of the hostel they lived in. There was no reason to move around quietly here, but after years of making her living as a thief, it was a natural habit.

  This next job better not be a scam. I'm going to strangle Arianne if it is.

  She stepped outside into the dreary street, one of many in River's End. Street urchins scampered about, picking through garbage, and washing lines sagged across the street under the weight of the clothes they carried. It was a familiar sight to her; at one time she had been one of those urchins, here in the poorest district of Rios.

  As she moved towards her destination, an abandoned house at the edge of the district, she kept a close eye on every alley she passed. This was not the time to run into a city watch patrol or some gang members bored enough to harass her.

  It appeared, however, that both the city's watchmen and its thugs had better things to do this afternoon. Felt reached her destination without seeing any of them.

  They're probably busy with that whole White Candle mess. Either that or hiding from it.

  The entrance to the abandoned house was an inconspicuous rear door, which led down into a cellar. It opened with a loud creak. Felt slipped inside and closed the door behind her. Down the stairs she could see a light, and she descended carefully, every step creaking as loudly as the door had.

  So loud. Everybody down there will know I'm here.

  The cellar at the bottom was small and almost entirely occupied by a large table. A single sun sigil lit the room, revealing two stools at either side of the table and a closed wooden door in the back wall.

  Felt hesitantly sat down on the nearest stool and pulled her short cloak tightly around her.

  Why isn't anyone here yet? she wondered, looking around the room to see if she had missed something. I don't like this at all. And why is it so cold in here?

  She shivered and hugged herself as the door on the far side of the cellar opened to reveal a hooded figure.

  “Felt Terridos?” the figure asked with a rasping male voice.

  Felt eyed the man with suspicion. He was wearing a hood that covered the upper half of his face, leaving only his mouth and nostrils visible. As he walked into the cellar she could see several wrinkles leading away from the corners of his mouth.

  An old man? she thought, remaining on guard. In a place like this, anything could happen and nobody outside would be any the wiser. Normally, she would never have considered meeting someone in a secluded place like this, but the job promised to pay a handsome amount of coin. Coin she desperately needed for Cassie.

  “Yes, I'm her.”

  “Good.”

  The figure sat down on the stool at the far side of the table, hunching forward so his eyes remained covered by his hood.

  Now there's someone who doesn't want to be recognized.

  The thought made her tense up even more. It was probably best if she concluded her business here as soon as possible. “I understand you have a job for me?”

  “I do,” the man said, his hood bobbing as he spoke. “And a very well-paying job it is.”

  “I would not be here otherwise,” Felt said, placing a slight emphasis on here.

  “It's a very straightforward task. We want you to enter the White Candle sanctum and steal an item of interest.”

  Felt's eyes grew wide, utterly astounded, before she stood up and slammed her hands on the table. “You want me to do what?! Are you insane?!”

  The man seemed unperturbed by Felt's reaction. “Oh, my apologies. Perhaps I should have said obtain instead of steal.”

  “That makes no difference!”

  She was livid. Who in their right mind would want to enter a place where an entire magic guild had been swallowed by the void? And they want me to go in there and steal something?! Madness.

  “If you are referring to the current Callium presence in the White Candle,” the man said calmly, “I have information that can help you avoid them easily.”

  “That's not the problem,” Felt snapped. “I'm not setting one foot in that place.” She had managed to lower her voice, but inside she still raged. Damn that Arianne twice for setting me up with a fool like this.

  “I refuse to take this job,” she bit at the man. “Good day.” She spun around and rushed towards the stairs that led out of the cellar.

  “I'm certain Cassie would be disappointed with you for not taking the job,” the man said.

  Felt halted in her tracks as if she had run into a wall. “What did you just say?” she asked, slowly turning around.

  If his expression had changed, she wasn't able to tell. His voice, however, sounded different now. More insidious.

  “Your little sister. Cassie she is called, yes? I'm certain you wouldn't want to disappoint her.”

  A feeling of terror nested itself inside Felt's heart. “Why would she be disappointed?” she asked, trying to make her voice sound firm.

  “I'm certain she wouldn't like it that her big sister doesn't have any coin to pay for her treatments. If that continues, she might suffer a serious relapse.”

  How does he know about that?

  The answer came to her almost instantly, and her heart sank.

  Three days ago, Madilla, the healer who had been treating Cassie, had nearly tripled the amount of coin she charged per treatment. She had claimed that some of the ingredients in the salve she used had become hard to come by due to a harsh winter, which had increased their price many times over.

  They set me up for this. They knew Cassie is sick and they used Madilla to get to me.

  The hooded figure was still waiting for a response.

  Felt considered beating him bloody. But she realized, in the end, there was no escaping this job. Even if she managed to raise the required money some other way, Madilla could just raise her prices even further, or withhold treatment altogether. If she did that, Felt would have to start looking for another tishe all over again.

  Finding another one would be easy enough if the past moons were any indication. Finding one that actually could actually help Cassie was another matter.

  She returned to the table and gave the hooded figure the fiercest scowl she could manage. Her only consolation was that she had deduced who the man sitting at the other end of the table represented.

  “I knew Hyna resorted to such low practices,” she said, her voice trembling. “But this is beyond what I expected.”

  “What makes you think I'm with Hyna?” the man asked. “This kind of action would not suit them at all.”

  “It wouldn't,” Felt agreed, “but there is no way any of the crime syndicates would leave a job this important to an outsider. And that's assuming they took an interest in things like these, which I know they don't.”

  “Perhaps I represent a party from outside the city. One you've never heard of, or is irrelevant to you.”

  Felt blew air out of her nose to show her contempt. “You just claimed that you have information that allows me to evade Callium easily. There is no way you could have that without being an established presence in this city. Not unless you were lying about that.”

  A grin appeared on the man's face. “Very perceptive,” he said, folding his hands. “I assume then that you won't believe the claim that we are one of the other magic guilds in the city either.”

  “They don't have the guts to go against the Crown.”

  “Not against the Crown, no. But I'm certain you have heard of the vendetta?”

  That gave Felt pause. She had heard about that yesterday, yet she had paid the news little heed. The intrigues the magic guilds spun between themselves were of little importance to a resident of River's End.

  Callium was placed in charge of the breaching, so perhaps they are the real target?

  “Feel free to reach your own conclusions,” the man continued. “I won't be telling you who I represent, since it is irrelevant to your task.”

  “Fine,” Felt said. “Hyna it is then.” In truth, she remained uncertain, but showing confidence was all she could do at this point.

  The man smiled, wrinkling up his face. “I'm glad to see that you are as suitable as we hoped. It is unfortunate that the coin alone wasn't sufficient to convince you. But, as you said, only a madman would take this job. Therefore, an additional incentive was required.”

  Felt remained silent. Her anger started to subside, replaced by a solemn feeling of acceptance.

  “That said,” the man continued, “be assured that you were not selected solely because of your sister's situation. After all, we do want to see results, and if we had thought you did not have the necessary skills to obtain them, you would not be here.”

  “I understand,” Felt said, thinking of how Cassie had run around the room after the first of Madilla's treatments. “What is it you want me to steal?”

  “We don't know.”

  Felt wiggled her nose, wondering if she heard him correctly. “What?”

  “I know this sounds strange, but I cannot give you any details on what it is we want you to retrieve. We only know that the item was brought into the White Candle three days prior to the disappearances, and that all magisters and magistras who had been out in the field returned in the days following.”

  “But you don't know what it is?” Felt asked incredulously.

  “No.”

  “Are you insane?”

  “No.”

  Could have fooled me. “How do you expect me to steal something I know nothing about?”

  “We are convinced that you will recognize it when you see it. Not so much the object itself, but most likely the way it is displayed.”

  Felt shook her head in disbelief.

  “I assure you that you will recognize it,” the man said. “And in the unlikely case you do not, it won't be recognized as important by Callium either. That would also be an acceptable outcome, for the time being.”

  This just gets stranger and stranger. “What do you want with it?”

  “I was under the impression that thieves like you do not ask such questions.”

  Felt wasn't angry anymore. She had switched to complete bewilderment. If he was a regular client, I might even find it funny.

  “This is a special case and you know it,” she said.

  The man sighed. “Very well,” he said. “Our main goal is to prevent Callium from obtaining the item. We do want you to deliver the item to us, if you manage to get hold of it, of course, but that is of lesser importance.”

  “So you want me to do what exactly?”

  “Your main task is to ensure Callium does not take possession of the item. If Callium fails to identify it as important, or if the sanctum proves to be too dangerous to enter, then we do not expect you to enter it either.”

  “Well, that's a relief,” Felt said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “We want to see you succeed at this,” the man said. “There is no need for distrust.”

  “Where is the information you promised? The stuff that will allow me to evade Callium's security measures?”

  “It's being delivered to your room as we speak.”

  They know where I live, of course. “And when is all this supposed to happen?”

  “In three days, though that time frame may shift. We will inform you if that happens.”

  “Fine.”

  She stood up and leaned forward over the table with a scowl on her face. “Was there anything else?”

  “If you have no further questions, then no, I believe we are done here. I'm certain any remaining questions will be answered by the materials we have provided.”

  Felt turned around and left the cellar without saying another word.

  Later that day, Felt sat at her tiny desk, sifting through the information the hooded man had provided. He claimed that the Callium magisters would not be much of a problem, and to Felt's amazement, he had not been exaggerating. Everything she needed was there; an exhaustive description of all the security measures Callium had set up, right down to the exact locations of all the warning sigils, and a complete list of who would be present at the White Candle. Hyna had even included extensive profiles on everyone who might be present over the next few days.

  She read it all with increasing wonder. How did they gather all of this information? It's like they've attended every meeting Callium has had about the White Candle. With this much information on hand, gaining entry to the White Candle unnoticed would prove to be not nearly as hard as she had feared.

  She ran her eyes once more over the map of the White Candle before her, and confirmed again that reaching the entrance to the sanctum would be relatively easy. The real challenge begins there.

  On the map, the sanctum itself was blank, so that wasn't much help. The biggest problem, however, was that she would have to time her entry precisely. She would have to enter the sanctum only moments after Callium, which meant she couldn't wait for a safe opportunity to present itself.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  In the event it turned out to be impossible to enter the sanctum without being noticed, all she could do is wait for Callium to bring the item out and then snatch it.

  Either way, she thought, leaning back in her chair, I need to be there when they open the sanctum. But I can handle that, since they won't be expecting me. Now if I only knew what it is that I'm supposed to steal.

  After she had left the cellar, she had investigated some of the rumours surrounding White Candle's disappearance. Unfortunately, most of them were so outrageous that nothing useful could be gleaned from them. The only thing she had learned beyond a doubt was that everyone was completely in the dark about White Candle's fate.

  She rubbed her temples, bemoaning her own fate. Had this been a regular thieving job, the item to be stolen would be exactly described, while the knowledge of the security measures surrounding it would be vague at best. Now it was the exact opposite.

  This is madness, no matter how you look at it, she thought. Forget about not knowing what the target is. I don't even know what's inside that sanctum. Nobody does.

  In the end, the sanctum was a problem she could not prepare for. She would have to improvise.

  She rubbed her face in frustration. Maybe I can fake the job.

  The thought made her stop her hands mid-rub. It would be easy enough, considering the circumstances; she could simply say that she couldn't find anything that matched what Hyna wanted, or claim that Callium got to it first.

  No, that won't work, Felt realized, after considering the implications. If they could discover this much information from a major guild like Callium, they will know that I'm lying just as easily.

  She sighed and started to sort the papers in front of her. Despite her misgivings about the job, she felt that the reward would be worth it. Madilla had shown up at their door earlier and was giving Cassie a long overdue treatment downstairs this very moment.

  Felt had wanted to confront Madilla about the hooded man, but the clear relief on Cassie's face had stopped her.

  There was a noise outside the room; the sound of a child's feet running down the hallway. A moment later, a small girl burst into the room with a big smile on her face.

  “Cassie,” Felt said, smiling warmly. “How are you feeling?”

  Cassie smiled back. “My fingers don't hurt anymore. See?”

  She held out her hands, wiggling her fingers.

  She couldn't do that this morning, Felt thought. She took care, however, not to show any sign of the sorrow she experienced at the thought.

  “That's great,” she said, ruffling Cassie's hair. “Has Madilla been nice to you?”

  “She has,” Cassie said with excitement on her face. “She said she was sorry she couldn't come earlier because she was busy.”

  She was busy indeed. Busy tricking your foolish sister into doing something stupid.

  “Is she still downstairs?”

  Cassie shook her head, her long black hair swirling around it. “No, she left already.”

  Not surprising. But I'll have words with her yet.

  Cassie's new-found joy, however, made her forget her worries. Even if only for a moment.

  Three days later, just before dusk, Felt squatted behind one of the many hedges that bordered the small plaza in front of the White Candle. It was named after some long dead archmagister with a needlessly complicated name, so most people simply referred to the location as Candle Square.

  The ground beneath her boots made soft sloshing sounds as she moved closer. It had been raining all day and clouds still covered the sky, making it appear darker than it should have been at that hour.

  The Nightsinger favours me tonight though, it seems.

  She extended her index and middle finger and placed them around her ear as if she wanted to snip it off.

  Silent by day,

  Quiet by night.

  Heed the song,

  Avoid the fight.

  With a gentle tug on her ear, she retracted her hand. Normally she wouldn't bother praying to the Nightsinger, but this time it seemed the right thing to do. If things went wrong, the Nightsinger's song was one of the few things that could warn her in time.

  Keeping close to the ground, she crept forward until she reached a small pedestal that supported a large flowerpot. On the other side, at the top of the stairway that led to the main entrance, a handful of Callium members stood smoking reeds.

  The first hurdle.

  A brief search through her runestone pouch revealed the stone she needed. The one holding the shroud spell.

  She reached up to the nape of her neck and slid the stone into the special leather holder on her back, hidden beneath her shirt. The stone felt cold to the touch and a shiver ran down her spine.

  Exhaling slowly, she focused the ?ther in her body and then channelled it into the runestone. A few moments later, she felt the familiar recoil that signalled the rune was charged, and she cast the spell.

  Her hands vanished from sight, leaving nothing but a dark shadow. She felt the light tugging sensation that signified the ?ther moving in her body.

  Relieved that the spell worked, she looked upwards at the White Candle in the fading daylight and recalled Cassie's smile once more. I'll never forgive Hyna for making me do this.

  She crept along the square towards the stairway, keeping a close eye on the three Callium men. Earlier today she had already made sure that the warning sigils were placed where the hooded figure had claimed they would be. Fortunately, there weren't many outside the tower. She would be able to avoid them easily.

  They're probably too lazy to maintain more of them.

  The three men were acting casually and showed no signs of being on guard. Felt took note of their robes.

  Two apprentices and an adept. She had expected there to be only one person on watch, but the increased number did not present a problem. The two apprentices were boys still, and the sole adept wasn't much older.

  Despite the fact that she was standing at the bottom of the steps, only a short distance away, the guards wouldn't see her, even if they were paying attention. The shroud spell had its limits, but as long as she avoided brightly lit areas and moved around slowly, it was as good as being invisible.

  She climbed the hill on which the White Candle was situated, taking care to avoid the warning sigils placed along the railings. The low brush that covered the hill was still damp from the earlier rains, and by the time she reached the top, her trousers clung to her calves.

  Better wet than dead, she thought, recalling a favourite expression of her old pack-master, although that particular saying referred to swimming.

  She squatted in a dark spot along the outer wall. Now I wait.

  “This is boring,” the tallest of the two apprentices said after a while, flicking away his spent reed.

  The other much shorter apprentice laughed. “What did you expect? Excitement? You seem to forget who is in charge of all this.”

  “How could I forget?” the tall apprentice said. He looked around and then spoke in a hushed voice. “That hard-ass.”

  Felt knew who he was talking about. Karan de Ekkar, the magister in charge of the breach. If even the slightest part of what she had read about him was true, he was indeed a hard-ass.

  “You guys talk too much,” the adept said. “Remember where you are.”

  “Somewhere boring.”

  The adept lit another reed. “Don't you have to be somewhere?” He sounded annoyed.

  “Yeah, yeah, I'm going,” the tall apprentice said. “These reeds are terrible anyway.”

  He trudged towards the entrance, leaving the other two staring across the square, burning fresh reeds in their mouths.

  Felt was already behind him, matching his pace.

  The heavy scent of a cheap cologne that was popular with young men entered her nose.

  By the ?ther, what woman would find this appealing? It smells like someone dragged a bunch of withered roses through a sewage pipe.

  The apprentice grabbed hold of the door and dragged it open with a loud screeching noise.

  Felt leaned to her right to check the entry hall that lay beyond. According to Hyna's information, there should be another person standing behind the door, checking everyone who came inside.

  There was nobody there.

  That person is probably one of the two behind me. Who would have thought that weavers in training make poor guards?

  She slipped in behind the tall apprentice, suffering one last whiff of his cologne, then squatted in a dark corner of the entrance hall while he closed the door again.

  “Damn fools. All of them,” he muttered as he moved down the hall and disappeared into the main hallway.

  Felt stood and stretched her arms. So far, everything was going very well. But the hardest part was still to come.

  Now to reach the sanctum.

  Following the apprentice wasn't an option. The main hallway was the most direct route, but it would likely be filled with people and well lit all the way. Instead, she would go the other way and approach the sanctum from the other side.

  After making sure the apprentice was gone, she walked towards an inconspicuous door in the west wall that led to the servants' quarters. She took her scrying stone out of the runepouch sewn into her sleeveless tunic, and held it out near the door, waving it back and forth slowly. There shouldn't be a warning sigil here, according to the plans she had received, but she wanted to make sure.

  The scrying stone remained dark.

  Good, that saves time.

  She placed her hand on the door handle and carefully pushed it down. There was some noise, but it was nothing compared to the racket the outer door had made. She opened the door just enough to slip through it and then closed it behind her.

  Darkness enveloped her. Callium had no reason to be in this part of the tower, and the servants who used to live there had not returned after their flight. Any sun sigils present would have lost their charge days ago.

  In the dark, she made her way past the servants' quarters. She kept her hands on the wall and moved slowly, not wanting to risk injury or sound by bumping into something.

  In this part of the tower, Callium had set up only a handful of warning sigils and they were only near the two other entrances; the servant entrance and the warehouse loading dock.

  When she reached a corner, she knew she was near the first of those two. She shuffled back a couple of steps to enter the nearest servant's room.

  This place should do nicely. Nobody will come by here.

  Felt reached into her runepouch and removed several runestones of equal size, before placing them in front of her. Next, she charged the tiny moon runestones that were sewn into her gloves at the wrists. They gave off a very faint light near her hands, which was just what she needed to set up her blackshift anchor. She then charged the remaining stones as well, one at a time, and arranged them carefully into a square, with the last one in the centre. As long as the sigil held charge, she would be able to instantly blackshift back to the room.

  I just hope this works when I'm inside the sanctum. I don't want to have to take the hard way out.

  As she didn't like her odds of remaining undiscovered once she entered the sanctum, her plan was to grab the item and then immediately blackshift to the servant's room.

  It would have been safer to set up the anchor somewhere outside the tower altogether, but she wasn't certain the wards in the outer walls would allow such a thing. Furthermore, a situation might occur where she would need to shift even if she hadn't been discovered. Setting up the anchor inside negated the need to gain entrance to the White Candle all over again.

  I can force my way out through the servants' exit if need be.

  After she was done setting up the shift anchor, she placed a small warning sigil of her own on the door and took a runestone the size of a plum from her pouch.

  The blackshift rune contained within made the stone by far the most valuable one she owned. Because of its rarity, it was worth a hundred times more than all her other runestones combined. She had obtained it years ago during a particularly hectic period of her life when she had a job every other day, and she kept it close to her wherever she went.

  She slid the blackshift runestone into the holder on her back and heard a soft click as it hit the shroud stone already there.

  This should do it.

  As she carefully advanced further into the tower, she listened for anything that could be a threat. Nothing crossed her path until she spotted a light in a room up ahead.

  She immediately flattened herself against the wall and shuffled forward to the doorway. A quick peek revealed two men in the room sitting opposite each other, a flagon between them.

  Krat! That's something I don't need.

  They sat in what appeared to be the dining hall. A quick recollection of the map of the White Candle confirmed Felt's fears. To reach the sanctum, she would have to walk right past them.

  Another peek revealed both men to be magisters, which made them dangerous as well.

  What are they doing here? There shouldn't be anything of importance in this room.

  The light in the room wasn't bright, but it would be enough to expose her shroud at least a little. Better not risk it.

  She recognized one of the men from the profiles she had read. He had a ridiculous hairstyle that wound his long black hair into something that resembled an upside-down wicker basket.

  Darien Tonnavil is his name, I think.

  The other magister was an unremarkable man in his forties with a receding hairline and a bulging stomach. The only thing Felt noticed about him was that his skin was darker than it should be.

  There aren't any cinds in Callium, are there? Or is this the one whose ancestors came from the Dust Empire?

  “You are overthinking it, Kindem,” Magister Tonnavil said with an air of authority, completely unaware of Felt's presence. “If you go slowly and smoothly, it becomes easy.”

  “I know what you mean,” the man called Kindem said with a tired voice, “but not many are willing to go as far as I want.”

  “Not without the proper stimulation, no,” Darien replied. “That's why you need to make it worth their while. Or at least make them think it's worth their while.” He laughed in an unpleasant manner. “In the end, they are all willing. Why do you think they want to be a servant for us so badly? They're all hoping to make some magister fall in love with them and become a wealthy little princess. All you need to do is to make them think just that.”

  “That works?”

  Darien huffed, turning his head away. “Of course that works. Remember that brunette from six moons ago? The one with the huge tits that spilled out of her bodice?”

  Kindem nodded, and Felt noted his eyes glazing over slightly.

  “She wouldn't put out for anyone,” Darien continued. “And it wasn't like nobody tried. I think at least half the guild tried to bed her. In the end, I was the one who got her.”

  “By making her think you loved her?”

  “Exactly. It works every time. Too bad the effort wasn't worth it, though. Those big tits weren't so perky without support; her nipples were already pointing south, if you know what I mean.”

  Felt resisted the urge to heave. Filthy pig. She felt disgusted even listening to them.

  Their crudeness itself wasn't the problem; it was the fact they could get away with it just as easily as the rapists who prowled the back alleys in River's End. And at least those creeps didn't cover their crimes with honey like these magisters did; it made their behaviour that much more vile and despicable.

  The worst part, however, was that Darien's claim about young women lining up to work as Callium servants was true. Women who came from poverty and had no talent for channelling ?ther had no choice but prostitution or menial labour. Felt knew several girls from her past who had ended up as either broken washerwomen or addicted whores.

  At least they aren't here for anything important. They probably snuck out for a drink.

  She decided to wait for the magisters to leave rather than attempt to slink by them.

  The men continued their misogynistic conversation, which made for a hard wait. By the time an apprentice appeared in the doorway on the far side of the room, she felt like she badly needed a bath.

  “Esteemed Magisters,” the apprentice said respectfully. “Magister Karan has opened the sanctum door and requests your presence.”

  Felt snapped to attention. They breached the sanctum already?!

  “Finally,” Darien said as he rose from his chair. “We could have done this yesterday if it hadn't been for Karan's perfectionism.”

  “He's a careful man,” Kindem replied, “and caution is not unwarranted in this case.”

  Darien grunted dismissively. “There is nothing that we cannot deal with, with all the preparations we have made.” Thus grumbling, the two magisters followed the apprentice back towards the sanctum.

  Felt restrained herself from following them immediately, despite her urge to do so. Her old pack-master had always said a thief needed to be good at three things: stealth, observation, and—most importantly—patience. It wouldn't be the first time someone left a room only to come back moments later because they forgot something.

  When nobody returned, however, Felt deemed it safe enough to dart across the dining hall.

  While listening for the sound of voices, she reached the stairway that led down towards the sanctum floor. She descended the tall stone steps without a sound until setting foot on the tiled floor that led to the sanctum entrance up ahead.

  She waited for a moment, listening for any signs of the three men who had gone ahead of her.

  Only silence reached her ears.

  They must be at the entrance already.

  The corridor that stretched out in front of her was sparsely illuminated by a handful of sun sigils along the wall. To her left she could see several doors, which she knew to be study rooms. To her right was the wall that separated the sanctum from the rest of the White Candle.

  I hope they aren't inside yet.

  Weaving from shadow to shadow, she advanced. Tension seized her. She was very close to her goal now.

  Nearby, the Nightsinger hummed a bawdy tune.

  Felt instinctively jumped into a dark spot and froze, just before the ground trembled beneath her feet and she heard a muted rumbling sound coming from somewhere behind her.

  Ahead of her, around the corner, voices began to shout, and a moment later she heard the familiar screeching sound of warning sigils coming from multiple directions.

  An ice-cold sense of dread filled her. The sanctum. There was something in the sanctum.

  All the rumours she had heard over the past few days came rushing back to her. The story about how the White Candle magistrae had summoned a terrible horror that had killed them all. Or how they had all been swallowed by the void. Or how they had transmogrified themselves, becoming demons devoid of sense and reason.

  Felt stood still as a statue, listening for somebody or something heading her way.

  Nothing came around the corner, however, and eventually the warning sigils stopped shrieking, and the shouting subsided. The Nightsinger had fallen silent once more as well.

  All she could hear now was a lone voice speaking loudly in a commanding tone.

  What just happened?

  Normally, all of that would have been more than enough reason for her to bail out, but she could not afford to do so right now. If she wanted to leave this place, she would at least need a good reason. Hyna would not be satisfied with anything less.

  She calmed herself as much as she could and crept towards the corner ahead. She peered around it and saw a group of orange-clad men standing at the far end of the corridor, one of them barking commands. There was no-one in the corridor itself, nor were there any injured or dead people, as far as she could see.

  They're not looking at the sanctum at all, Felt noticed. Where did that rumble come from then?

  The man in charge appeared to be a magister with short light-brown hair.

  That must be Karan de Ekkar.

  He was pointing in the direction of the main entrance. Then he gestured towards several other people and shouted more commands.

  What's he saying?

  She could make out only fragments, yet she didn't dare go any closer. The corridor between her and the Callium men was filled with light. Not just from sun sigils, but also from an ominous-looking red jewel above the sanctum entrance.

  Whatever happened, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the sanctum.

  “How does it look?” a male voice behind her said.

  Felt bit her tongue to prevent herself from screaming as she spun around. She was greeted by a corridor that was just as empty as it had been when she first came through it.

  Who said that?! I'm certain I heard a voice!

  “Calm down,” a female voice said, “no need to be so jumpy.” There was a faint shift in Felt's vision. An area right next to her appeared darker for a moment. It was barely noticeable, but she recognized it instantly.

  A shroud spell.

  She fought the rising panic inside her. There were at least two shrouded people standing right next to her. And worse, while she couldn't see them, they were clearly able to see her. She had not been moving when the male voice addressed her, so they shouldn't have been able to spot her.

  Who are these people? And why ask me how it looks? Do they think I'm one of them?

  Whatever she was going to do, she needed to do it fast. So she gambled.

  “It looks okay,” Felt said. By some miracle she managed to make her voice sound firm.

  “Yeah, I can tell,” the male voice said, now coming from her left. “We can catch them off guard easily like this.”

  Catch them off guard? They aren't from Callium, then. The realization did nothing to alleviate her anxiety.

  “Wait a moment, Three.” the female voice said, followed by a rustling sound. “You, the one who was already here. Are you from the second group? How did you get here so fast?”

  “I used Light snap.”

  The words came out without a moment's hesitation, despite the sweat that trickled down Felt's back as she frantically thought of a way to escape.

  I can't shift here. If they have scrying stones, they will notice the moment I start channelling. I need to distract them first with a fast cast. She slowly slid her hand into her runepouch.

  “You used Light snap indoors? Are you insane?” the female voice hissed. “What's your number?”

  Felt swallowed once and readied herself. “Seven.”

  There was a moment of silence, yet Felt instinctively realized she had been found out. With a flick of her wrist she pulled the Sunburst rune from her pouch and bathed the entire corridor in eye-searing light.

  Voices cried out in agony as she forced herself past the shrouded number Three and ran towards the sanctum entrance. She needed a spot where she could take enough time to blackshift, which would whisk her away to safety. Going back the way she had come wasn't an option with who knew how many of those voices moving around.

  Ahead of her the Callium men were alarmed by the sunburst and subsequent screams. She could see hands being brought together and reaching into runepouches. Before long the entire corridor would be filled with deadly magic.

  To her immense relief, she saw that the sanctum door was open, and she flung herself sideways through the doorway, only to be violently repelled by an invisible force that threw her against the opposing wall.

  Gasping for air, she slumped onto the floor as the pain from the impact engulfed her body. Panic gripped her tightly. With her last small sliver of focus, she poured ?ther into the blackshift rune on her back.

  A light flashed by, followed by the sensation of heat on her face.

  She barely noticed it. Her consciousness started to fade, and she desperately clung to the feeling of ?ther gathering.

  Then, after what seemed to be an eternity, the runestone gave its recoil and Felt completed the cast of the spell as her final act before she lost consciousness.